It is known to provide decorative attachments for a brassiere, generally, by stitching the decorative element to the brassiere, thereby affixing the decoration in a nonreplaceable and nonremovable manner.
It is also known to provide additional support to brassiere cups by forming beneath the fabric of the cup an arcuate pocket or tube, usually by stitching of the fabric, and inserting a so-called "underwire" into the pocket. In the past, such underwires have been composed of metal, plastic or plastic covered metal and have been of a variety of cross sectional shapes, the most common of which have been circular or rectangular sections.
Furthermore, the underwires may be free from interconnection or can be interconnected at the center of the brassiere between the cups thereof by any of a number of types of connectors. For example, the bridge piece between the underwires may be a rigid member, with the underwires being formed in one piece with the bridging member or simply attached thereto. The underwires may have ends which are affixed to a rigid bridge piece during the mounting of the underwire and the stitching of the bridge piece to the fabric of the brassiere. There are also connectors between the underwires in the form of sleeves or the like into which ends of the wires can be fitted to enable the wire to swivel.
With respect to the underwires themselves, the art has recognized the importance of so shaping the underwire so that they are flexible to a limited extent torsionally, i.e. the portions of the underwire can twist out of the natural plane thereof while ensuring a certain degree of rigidity in this plane, i.e. limiting the flexibility of the underwire with respect to its spread between its ends. Such underwires will provide support for and in part shape to the breast received in the brassiere cup cover and above that which is contributed by the fabric of the cup.
By and large, while many of the techniques for attaching decorative elements to a brassiere have been found to be satisfactory, frequently replacement or substitution of decorative elements is desirable and many of the approaches used in the past have proved to be incompletely satisfactory. Furthermore, underwire constructions as used heretofore have also not been fully satisfactory, either because the underwire has contributed to wearer discomfort, or because the underwire was incapable of providing sufficient support or shape retentiveness.
It should also be noted, with respect to prior underwire constructions, that, in some cases, removal of an underwire is desirable, for example, for washing of the brassiere, or to convert the brassiere into a soft brassiere as distinct from an underwire bra. When an underwire brassiere has been laundered in the past, there was a tendency for the underwire to poke through the fabric and to then damage other garments or even injure the washing machine itself. To counter this tendency it has been the practice heretofore to provide extra layers of fabric, thereby increasing the bulkiness of the brassiere.